Clarence Budington Kelland

Scattergood Baines, Detective Clarence Budington Kelland

"Baines is an American institution ... and when Baines turns detective, our delight knows no bounds." -Leslie Charteris in The Saint Mystery Magazine Mystery fans will fall in love with Scattergood Baines! "That typically American character, that magazine and movie favorite-Scattergood Baines-had his own manhunting method. 'I dunno's I hold much with clues, not the kind ye kin see with your eyes and tetch with your fingers.' He could 'git the true inwardness' of an assault-and-robbery-and that's true detecting. Scattergood Baines acts the part of an authentic detective, in the purest American style." -Ellery Queen in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine The Scattergood Baines Method: "He leaned back on the specially reinforced chair on the piazza of his hardware store, removed his shoes and socks and began to twiddle his toes-much to the chagrin of his wife Mandy. His mind worked more freely when his toes were unconfined, so that he might wriggle them as he reasoned." Here are 12 classic stories about the three-hundred-pound Sage of Coldriver. Written during the Golden Age of the Detective Story, and printed in the same magazines as Rex Stout, Agatha Christie and Erle Stanley Gardner, most of the Scattergood Baines tales have never been reprinted before. For readers of Wolfe, Marple, and Father Brown, this one-of-a-kind collection, selected from the pages of The Saturday Evening Post and The American Magazine, is an incomparable treat. Leslie Charteris hailed Clarence Budington Kelland as "one of the Old Masters." Few other authors could fit romance, mystery and detection into 5,000 words with such adroit effortlessness. "A writer of distinction." -The Detroit News